The latest Mapperley Tory newsletter makes some remarkable gaffes; The Tories - 1. Use an incorrect figure (£3.5m) for City Council phone bills (actually £2.4m), even though the full information was made available to the Tory Councillors; 2. Forget that in September 2002, the national Tory leader called for a pre-emptive strike against Iraq's WMD. Since then, Nottingham East Tories invited memers of the public to select their Parliametary candidate. Just 22 attended. According to the NEP, the 'chairman of the Nottingham East Constituency Conservative Party, said: "The turnout is up on last time. It's been a bit of an experiment but I feel it's been phenomenally successful."' -- On prostitution, Jon Collins has written to Home Office Minister Caroline Flint about the work we are doing and the text of the letter can be read. If there was an element of bluff around the CCTV signs, the Tories have publicly undermined the CCTV signs by saying there's no cameras; however, there may well be mobile camera units working. The Tories welcome more community wardens - which is a Labour initiative, being financed through "Respect for Nottingham". In a gesture reminiscent of infantile trot politics, the Tories pledge themselves to "NO prostitutes NOW". They then call for extra services to help prostitutes. The Tories complain of there being "no dedicated health workers" - for prostitutes - how much public money do they want for such an initiative and why do they want a dedicated service? "there are just 3 outreach workers" - how many more do the Tories want and at what cost? The Tories are pledged to cut public services straight away. Labour has made the economy the priority and has created the longest period of prosperity for 200 years. - - - On use of telephones, The Tories say "Instead of spending £3.5 million on ... telephones ..." - which if taken literally, would appear that the Tories don't want the Council to use the phone. Moving on, the spend is actually £2.4 million (and this includes mobile phones). The Tories got the figures wrong even though the Council provided a report. Why don't they check!! £2.4 million is a lot and covers 8,500 extensions; the majority of phones are used by important services such as education, social services and housing. The City Council is in the process of working out the award to contract for a new deal, which means we’ll be reducing overall call costs and saving £0.5m over 5 years expenditure (around about a 4% saving). Mobile phones are also out to tender which could well save around about the same again (£0.5m over 5 years; 30% of the mobile bill). - - - On crime, selective use of statistics can paint any picture desired. Since August 2003, there has been significant progress in reducing the number of burglaries, robberies and car crimes. Crime generally has been showing a modest fall but it is falling, and whilst our detection rate could be better, measures have been put into place to improve our performance in this area. We and our partners also have a responsibility to treat statistics responsibly and in a way which does not unnecessarily increase the fear of crime. There are currently averaging less than 18 burglary dwellings per day and less than 4 robberies a day, which for an area like the City of Nottingham, with a population of 267,000 perhaps helps put the figures into perspective. Where is the national Tory commitment to back up the claim that they'll provide 40,00 extra police nationally and 700 in Notts? Note, they're not claiming to provide the 1,000 that their Leader, Cllr. Culley talks about. And the Tories are refusing to match Labour's spending plans to expand the Police Force. - - - On WMD, this is the first Tory statement I've seen that decided to attack Labour for why we went to war in Iraq. Their commitment to invasion had less strings. In September 2002, the then Tory leader IDS called on Blair to order a pre-emptive strike on Iraq to deal with Saddam's WMD. - - - And as for trust, what are the Tories saying? Vote BBC?
[Updated 2004-03-31]
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